Heaven

Hell &

Judgment

       ENG375/AHI318

Spring 2024
Time: Monday, 6:30 pm - 9:10 pm
Location: Virtual
Instructor:
 SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Diane Christian
 Email: engdc@buffalo.edu
Office hours: To be determined and by appointment.

 

Teaching Assistants: Kaitlyn Engel kjhenry@buffalo.edu Office hours: TBD and by appointment..
Zachary Brown zjbrown@buffalo.edu Office hours: TBD and by appointment.

 
This course will consider great verbal and visual texts of eternal reward and punishment -- images and stories of heaven, hell and judgment from ancient Sumer to modern film. We will study the Sumerian goddess Inanna's descent to the great below, the Egyptian weighing of the soul, classical underworlds, blessed places and judgment scenes. We'll also consider the Christian Apocalypse and medieval illuminations, Romanesque churches, Dante's Inferno and Paradiso, mystic visionaries, Michelangelo, Signorelli and Bosch, and Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. We'll finish with the 1946 classic film A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven).

Syllabus and Schedule of Readings
Schedule of Images Online

other links

Giotto and the Arena Chapel
    Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel
Visions of Tondal
Sistine Chapel
 

Email to Diane Christian